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Dubai’s Emirates to briefly operate A380 to St. Petersburg in October

Dubai airline Emirates will operate its flagship A380 aircraft to St. Petersburg in Russia during the Autumn holidays in October, it announced on Monday.

The carrier said the jumbo jet will replace the Boeing 777 deployed on the route to cater to increased demand during the holiday period.

From October 25-29 – ahead of the school holidays in Russia – flights EK 175/176 between Dubai and St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo International Airport will be operated by the A380, offering 14 first class suites, 76 business class seats and 429 economy class seats.

Flight EK175 will depart Dubai at 3.45pm and arrive in St. Petersburg at 8.50pm, while the return flight, EK176 will leave Russian city at 11.55pm and arrive in Dubai at 6.55am the next day.

This will be the first time an A380 has operated to the St. Petersburg airport, which has undertaken preparations in order to receive the double-decker aircraft.

Emirates said it “remains committed to the Russian market” operating flights to both Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The airline has recently announced plans to launch a third daily flight to Moscow Domodedovo airport starting from October 25, in response to increased customer demand for travel between Russia and the UAE.

Emirates first started operating to St. Petersburg in November 2011.

The airline, the world’s largest operator of the Airbus A380 jet, recently celebrated 10 years of flying the aircraft.

It currently flies 104 double-decker aircraft to 49 cities on scheduled services.

The airline also operates the world’s shortest A380 route from Dubai to Kuwait and the world’s longest A380 non-stop route from Dubai to Auckland.

In total, the Emirates A380 has touched down in 73 airports for one-off and scheduled services, special commemorative flights, chartered flights, test flights and other operational deployments.

In January 2018, Emirates ordered a further 36 A380s worth $16bn, taking the airline’s commitment for the aircraft to 178 units, including options for 16 planes.